Oof. Following on from her accusations this week, Amber Tamblyn has penned a blistering open letter to James Wood detailing the story that he deemed “a lie”.
Calling me liar, James? This is now far from over. That I can promise.
— Listening in the Dark ✨ Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) September 12, 2017
If you missed the it earlier this week, the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants actress accused Woods of hitting on her when she was just 16-years-old, and said that when she informed him of her age, he replied, “even better.”
Woods later tweeted that her story was “a lie”, but that hasn’t stopped others from coming forward with their own tales of the actor creeping on much younger women.
And Tamblyn is having absolutely none of it.
“Since you’ve now called me a liar, I will now call you a silencer,” she wrote. “I see your gaslight and now will raise you a scorched earth.”
The letter, published in Teen Vogue, is as much about how society’s default position is to disbelieve women as it is about imploring Woods to wake up to his own behaviour.
It also details exactly what happened on that fateful night.
My friend Billy and I were at the Roxy on Sunset Boulevard seeing a band we loved. We decided to go to Mel’s diner on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to get burgers after. I had just gotten my driver’s license and very specifically remember my nervousness trying to park in the diner parking lot. Upon leaving the restaurant we were stopped by you and your friend, who both seemed very nice. At one point you suggested we should all go to Las Vegas together. “It’s such a great place, have you ever been?” You tried to make it sound innocent. This is something predatory men like to do, I’ve noticed. Make it sound innocent. Just a dollop of insinuation. Just a hair of persuasion. Just a pinch of suggestion. “It will be so much fun, I promise you. Nothing has to happen, we will just have a good time together.” I told you my age, kindly and with no judgment or aggression. I told you my age because I thought you would be immediately horrified and take back your offer. You laughed and said, “Even better. We’ll have so much fun, I promise.”
Here’s the thing, Mr. Woods. At that time I was not a public persona. I had done a couple years on a soap opera as an actress, but you wouldn’t know me from Adam. I’m sure you’ve racked your brain trying to remember how you could’ve possibly hit on the actress Amber Tamblyn at a diner almost two decades ago. You think, it’s not possible, there’s no way I would’ve been so stupid as to hit on a 16-year-old known actress. But I wasn’t known then, James. I was just a girl. And I’m going to wager that there have been many girls who were just girls or women who were just women who you’ve done this to because you can get away with it.
Now, even more women are coming forward with accusations against Woods.
https://twitter.com/duplaselton/status/908086032406421504
My bff and I were roller skating in Westwood, CA in 1977. @RealJamesWoods tried to pick us up. We were 17. #jameswoodsisaperv
— lauren morrison (@auntylolo) September 13, 2017
Love this. And @ambertamblyn, I had same thing happen to me with him when I was 22. I looked 16 though! https://t.co/U7KZtUSJAs
— Brooke Hammerling (@brooke) September 13, 2017
Woods – who usually tweets about twenty thousand times a day – has yet to comment on her piece. Maybe, just this once, he can STFU.
Have a read of her full letter at Teen Vogue, and consider the earth well and truly scorched.
